


Surprise Package

by anniwndrrr



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Baby, Birth, F/F, Sick Regina, caring emma, magic!baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 01:50:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4121743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anniwndrrr/pseuds/anniwndrrr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set some time after Neverland. Pan's curse was never cast.<br/>Regina is 'sick', Emma takes care of her.<br/>Pre-SQ</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise Package

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know what I’m talking about. (Like for real.)  
> Also, I own nothing and borrowed a bit of dialog from the show.
> 
> \- - -
> 
> So this is a one shot. To not confuse you… my idea is that destroying the trigger had some, uhm, consequences for Regina. It’s not a really new idea… but read how Emma cares for a ‘sick’ regina (don’t want to give away too much).  
> It’s kinda pre-SQ, but all about the ladies and no beards will appear. I promise.   
> (And if you do not like SwanQueen… i don’t force you to read on.)  
> I’m not a native English speaker, so if anything sounds odd, feel free to tell me.

 

_As soon as she had swallowed the last bit of the potion her abdomen contracted painfully. Her eyes went wide and she had to sit down on her chaise longue at the feeling._

_“Get the hell out of my life," she yelled at her mother._

_She curled into herself, hand coming to rest on her lower stomach._

_“Oh Regina," her mother looked at her with pity as she moaned at the pain. An unwilling sob escaped her as her mother babbled on. With the last strength she could muster she stood up and watched her mother’s retreating form._

_“Go back to wonderland mother, i don’t need you," she called after her, but her voice wavered at the end. As soon as her mother was out of sight she collapsed back. She felt hot sticky blood trickle down her thighs. And she wept._

\- - -

She wakes up to a dark room with a phantom of the pain she has felt all those years ago. When she hurt herself just to spite her mother. She curls herself up into a tiny ball, hand pressed on her abdomen and closes her eyes tightly. She regrets what she has done. Not back then, but later. Later when she already had a whole in her heart. A painful cramp shakes her and she exhales heavily, trying to ignore the pain she feels and couldn’t possibly be real but a figment of her imagination.

\- - -

Many hours later she is sitting behind her desk at the mayoral office, lips pressed into a thin line, face pale and one hand lingering on her abdomen to help soothe the pain while the other hand scrawls her signature on papers upon never ending papers.

She doesn’t understand why the memory has come back now. It is one of the few, that has haunted her in her dreams only from time to time and has stopped completely when she got henry. So why now?

The pen slips out of her grasp when an especially painful cramp rips through her. She sucks in a deep breath and curls over in her seat and squeezes her eyes tightly together.

This is getting ridiculous. She can’t remember being in that much pain after she had taken the potion and this is unlike any period cramps she has felt before. Then the pain stops again and she is left with an uncomfortable feeling.

There is a knock on her office door and she tries to compose herself as best as possible before she calls out for whoever is behind the door to enter.

"Miss Swan," she says half annoyed and half relieved that it isn’t someone else. “What do you want?"

Emma holds a take out bag up for her to see. “You said you wanted to discuss Henry’s schedule, so I thought I’d bring by lunch."

She lowers the bag onto Regina’s desk and only now studies the woman sitting behind it. Her face is tight and her hands curled around the armrest of her chair.

“Are you alright?" Emma asks and furrows her brows as she watches Regina closely.

“Yes, of course," Regina barks back. “Not that it’s any of your con-"

She is interrupted by another painful wave through her abdomen that leaves her unable to speak. Instead she holds back a moan of pain that threatens to come out of her mouth. Her arms sneak around her middle and she leans forward. Anything to relieve the pain but it won’t help.

“Regina!" Emma gasps and makes her way behind the desk. She stands helplessly not knowing how to console the other woman. She lets a hand hover awkwardly over Regina’s shoulder, but doesn’t dare to actually touch her.

After what seemed to be a small eternity Regina relaxes again, although just slightly and looks up at Emma.

“How long has this been going on?" Emma asks her but Regina just shakes her head.

“I can deal with a bit of pain. You don’t need to feel obliged, dear."

“Don’t do that."

“What?"

“Shut me out. I care about you. You’re the mother of my son. And I thought we were something like friends."

“You really think that?" Regina stares at Emma with wide eyes.

Emma nods.

“At least let me bring you home. Please."

Regina is huffing but nods. Emma holds out her hand and Regina takes it. She braces herself as she stands. Everything felt tight. So tight. Her usual so elegant and poised frame is slumped forward as she makes her way to the door, Emma following her with little distance.

Just before the door she can feel another wave of intense pain ripple through her and instinctively turns around to brace herself on Emma.

“Ouch," Emma yelps as Regina squeezes her arm hard.

“Sorry," Regina breathes and eases her grip marginally.

“Are you sure you don’t need to see a doctor?" Emma asks carefully once Regina has loosened her grip again and is turning to walk on.

“I’m not seeing Whale."

“It’s just, you know, it doesn't seem like only a bad case of cramps or something."

“Just get me home," Regina pleads as she slowly walked out of the door and into the bright daylight.

Emma nods and loops an arm around Regina’s waist, who seems to lose her strength with every step she makes towards the little yellow car Emma owned. She helps Regina into the passenger seat and then closes the door before sprinting around and jumping into the driver’s side. There are still a couple hours left before someone has to pick up Henry from school, so she decides to stay with Regina as long as the other woman would allow it.

They are nearly at Mifflin street when Regina curls into herself again, deeper into the seat and this time fails to hold back a small whimper. Emma reaches over to take one of Regina’s hand and squeezes it in sympathy.

“We’re almost there."

“Hurts,” Regina says between breaths.

Emma glances at the dashboard clock. It can’t have been more than ten minutes since the last cramp Regina has had.

She thinks about turning around and in the direction of the hospital, but then again Regina has looked terrified at the thought of Whale examining her, so she pulls into Mifflin street and a few moments later into the driveway of 108. Regina has her eyes closed and her hands rest on her abdomen. Emma clears her throat.

“We’re here."

Regina opens her eyes. “Thank you, Miss Swan."

She starts to get out of the car when Emma stops her. “Wait, let me help you."

“I think you’ve done enough already."

Emma just shakes her head and races around her bug to help Regina out of the car. Again, she curls a steadying arm around Regina’s waist and helps her up the path to her front door. she waits patiently for Regina to open the door and then leads her inside and up the stairs. When they stop at Regina’s bedroom she feels the brunette tense up and then she is used as a brace again as another wave of agony hit Regina’s body. The brunette groans. And Emma, Emma really thinks that it would have been a smarter idea to get Regina to the hospital. The Evil Queens wrath be damned.

“Tell me again," she cautiously asks Regina. “Since when are you in pain?"

Regina sighed. “I don’t know. I think it was between two or three AM this morning."

Emma groans inwardly. This stubborn woman. “Is it getting worse?"

Regina nods and leans heavily against Emma. She is so tired and everything hurt.

“What’s wrong with me Emma?" she whispers and a lone tear escapes her eye.

Emma patted her back and led her into her room.

“It’s gonna be okay." _I hope_ , she thinks.

She deposits Regina on her bed and then riffles through her closet and finds her the most comfortable looking pyjamas. She holds them out to Regina.

“Get comfortable, I’m going to make some tea."

Regina nods in a daze as Emma leaves the room.

Downstairs Emma rummages through the drawers to find some herbal tea. Her thoughts are a mess. She has no idea what’s wrong with the brunette but she just knows that it’s going to come back and bite her in the ass. She glances at her watch and willed the water to boil faster, because of course Regina has a fucking kettle for the stove and not an electric one. And if she is right then she doesn’t have much longer until Regina would be in another wave of pain and she just doesn’t want to let the brunette go through it alone. She doesn’t wait for the water to boil all the way before she fills a cup and tosses the tea bag in it. Quickly she makes her way back upstairs, just in time. Regina has only managed to get out of her clothes and into the pyjama pants when Emma bursts through the door again. Regina wants to reprimand her, but yet again a wave of pain hits. Emma can see how the muscles in regina’s abdomen constrict and ripple under the skin. Regina curls up on the bed and pants in pain. Emma puts the cup of tea on the bedside table and then sits behind Regina. She presses a hand on her tight lower back and tries to elevate some of the pressure the brunette is surely feeling. When Regina relaxes again she starts to shiver, so Emma helps her into her pyjama top and then guides her under the covers. She pulls a nice ornate chair from the corner next to the bed and sits down.

“Are you going to watch me in my misery, Emma?" Regina’s voice is dark but sounds tired.

Emma snorts a bit. “No, i’m just making sure that you’re going to survive. Henry wouldn’t like it when you’re gone."

“Very funny."

“I’m quite serious," Emma says, not an ounce of mockery in her voice. “Try to sleep. Hopefully you feel better when you wake up again."

\- - -

Emma watches as Regina closes her eyes and settles into the chair. She is surprised that it really doesn’t take long for the brunette to fall into a somewhat light slumber.

But it doesn’t take long either for the beautiful face to scrunch up in pain again. She reaches out to take Regina’s hand and squeezes. The other woman doesn’t open her eyes but squeezes back. Hard.

They go through this pattern a few more times before Emma slips out of her shoes and lays down behind Regina on top of the covers.

“Are you sure you don’t want to see a doctor?" Emma whisperes from behind.

Regina tenses but shakes her head. “I’m sure, Miss Swan."

“Emma."

“Emma, I’m sure."

“Cos’ I don’t know, but you seem in a lot of pain and I just want to be sure that you don’t have a ruptured appendix or something like that."

“I don’t think it’s my appendix. It just feels like a very very bad case of period cramps."

Regina shudders and curls in herself again as the by now familiar wave of pain rips through her. Emma rubs Regina’s back but otherwise feels pretty helpless.

“Only, that I’m not really due for my period. And I was never in this much pain before," Regina whispers after a while.

Regina glances at her alarm clock and notices, that it’s time to pick up Henry from school.

“Someone has to get Henry."

“I’m going to call Mary Margaret, she can take him for a milkshake to Granny’s."

Regina nods and can feel the bed move as Emma climbs out to make the phone call. she closes her eyes and breathes deeply in and out.

When Emma comes back in Regina is curled up on her side again. Hands in fists and eyes squeezed tightly together. Emma rushes to her side.

\- - -

“Do you want to take a bath? Maybe that will loosen up your muscles?"

Regina nods. At this point she would try anything to get rid of the pain that seared through her.

“Okay," Emma pats her hand. “Just, just stay here and I’ll draw a bath for you. ‘kay?"

Soon lavender scent comes out from the bathroom and Regina inhales deeply. She can hear the water stream into the tub and then Emma’s soft patter as she comes to get her. At that point she doesn’t care that it is Emma helping her. The pain is just too much and she is unsure how much more she could take. Maybe she should’ve listened to Emma and have her take her to the hospital? But no. Her fear of Whale is to big to give in. There aren’t really any other doctors that the curse provided. And she would certainly not let a dwarf look at her.

She sits up gingerly and cringes at the feeling in her abdomen. Then Emma helps her stand. They shuffle into the spacious bathroom and Regina thinks that that may have been the best idea that has ever come from the blonde. She already feels more relaxed seeing the bubbles in the tub.

“Do you need help?” Emma asks, looking a bit awkward at the prospect of seeing Regina naked.

“No, I think I can manage. Thank you.”

Regina smirks at seeing the Sheriff slightly uncomfortable.

Emma shrugs. “Good. I’ll be back in a few then.”

When Emma has left and closed the door behind her Regina strips down and folds her clothes neatly before stepping into the tub. A task that takes a lot more energy out of her then she suspected. Her muscles are so tight and sore that it was very uncomfortable to step over the high edge. She sighed relieved when the warm water flows around her skin.

The reprieve is short lived however. No sooner then she lowered her head to rest back a cramp takes hold of her. She grabs the edge of the tub to steady her and groans in pain. Water is sloshing over the edge from her sudden movement.

Emma, who must’ve lingered just outside the door, sprints in an kneels beside her on the floor. Modesty be damned. Her hand finds the small of Regina’s back. And even though it doesn’t do much against the pain, it comforts Regina all the same. Because in truth she is scared. Oh so scared.

When the pain subsides and just the odd uncomfortable feeling is left, she slumps against the side and her head comes to Emma’s shoulder. Emma’s hand runs over her back soothingly.

\- - -

“Do you want to get out or do you want some more warm water?” Emma asks when Regina begins to shiver in the now tepid water.

“Out.”

Regina reaches for Emma’s hand and Emma took it, sensing that Regina wouldn’t be able to get out on her own. Despite that the bath seemed to have a somewhat relaxing effect, the pain still comes and goes. The breaks in between grow shorter. And really Emma is just getting a weird vibe from it. Regina seems to be unaware of it and just seems to be glad that Emma is there. Her free hand slips under Regina’s arm to lift her up and then hold her upright for a moment when she come to a stand. Regina doesn’t care that she’s standing naked in front of someone and Emma does her best to ignore the fact. So she reaches for a fluffy towel and holds it out for Regina, who istaking it gratefully and wraps it around her aching body. Then Emma helps her to step out of the tub. Carefully she lifts one leg over the edge, then the other. After the long time in the tub they feel more like pudding and without Emma’s help she’d surely have crumpled to the floor by now.

Halfway on the way towards her bed Regina stops and stays frozen. Her eyes are closed but she doesn’t tense up the way she would had it been one of the cramps.

“Regina?” Emma asks and looks concerned at the other woman.

“I,” but Regina just looked down at the strange sensation of something trickling down her thighs without her permission. Then she looks up again, embarrassment plainly written in her face.

“I think, I didn’t want to, I,” she stammers, tears spilling over her cheeks and Emma looks down now as well.

Emma wipes away the tears with her thumbs and guides Regina to her bed as if nothing has happened. She tries to stay calm for Regina’s sake, but no way, she thinks, this is happening. She makes her way back to the bathroom and wets a washcloth all the while shaking her head at the absurd idea that just came to her mind. One deep breath and then she turns back towards the brunette. She hands her the cloth and Regina wipes herself clean while Emma is off to look for something to clean the floor.

When Emma comes back carrying some cleaning utensils for the floor Regina shakes her head.

“You don’t need to do that,” she tells her weakly. Then she concentrates and flicks her hand in a familiar motion, but nothing happens. She tries again and again and Emma watches how Regina’s gestures become frantic and panic settles into her brown eyes.

“Stop,” Emma tells her and discards whatever she’s holding in her hands.

“But my magic,” Regina stammers. “I can’t feel my magic.”

She’s breathing irregularly and really it makes everything worse. Her insides are on fire and there’s another bout of pain rolling through her but she can’t breath. Can’t breath.

“Regina,” Emma comes to sit next to the woman. “Look at me. Regina look at me.”

Regina pries her eyes open and stares into Emma’s green ones.

“Breath with me. Okay? Can you do that for me?”

Regina tries to nod, but her mouth is open but nothing comes in.

“In. And out. In. Out.”

Emma lays one of Regina’s trembling hands beneath her sternum and exaggerates her breathing to let the other woman feel. Regina tries to mimic and then another few painfully slow seconds later she can suck some air into her deprived lungs. The wave of pain stops. Not as much as before but she can breath again.

Regina’s dark hair is plastered to her head. Emma’s arms settle around regina’s shoulders and then Regina folds into Emma, as much as the pain allows.

“It hurts,” she sobs. “Oh god Emma it hurts so much.”

“I know. I know.”

“How much’s the pain?” Emma whispers after a few moments.

“Like I’d want to rip my insides out,” Regina answers darkly through a sob.

Emma continues to rub regina’s back.

“Don’t freak out on me, okay? But, but could it be that you’re…” Emma starts, but is almost afraid to say it out loud.

“That I’m what, Emma?” Regina asks with little bite.

“That you’re in labor,” Emma speaks so fast that Regina can barely make out he words.

“Come again?” Regina asks, and she can feel the build up of the searing pain again.

“Labor. That you’re in labor,” Emma says again. More slowly. Somewhat uncertain.

“What? No!” Regina is aghast.

“Do I look pregnant to you?” Regina asks and waves down her frame.

“Well no, but that doesn’t mean…”

“There’s no way I could be pregnant, Emma,” Regina tells her morosely. “I made sure of that myself a long time ago. And i’d need to have had sex with anybody since graham.”

Emma doesn’t understand and looks at her questioningly.

“A potion,” Regina offers when she can see Emma’s confusion. “I took a potion so I won’t ever get pregnant. I made myself barren.”

Emma looks a little horrified.

“Why would you do that?”

“Well, in that moment it seemed like a good idea. My mother suggested a child would be good for me and I thought she was just waiting to take my throne. So I did it to spite her.”

“Oh.”

The way Regina tells her things about her past - sparsely - is always so detached. As if she’s talking about someone else rather then her own.

But she doesn’t have time to think about it longer because Regina is gasping in pain again.

And Regina is feeling so much. There is pressure bearing down on her. And maybe. Oh god maybe Emma is right. Maybe for whatever sick reason she doesn’t know she’s going to give birth right now.

“Emma,” she grounds out. “Oh, god. I don’t know. Maybe you’re right.”

She’s panting and then she’s scooting a bit up the bed. Towel slipping from her, revealing her bare body. Emma’s watching and then eyes widen. Because. Holy cow. She was fucking right. Regina has her knees bend and legs spread open and really Emma would have had the time of her life if it isn’t for a suspicious dark patch of hairs between said legs that are definitely not Regina’s.

“Oh shit.”

“What? What?” Regina asks, now in a panic. Because she can’t really wrap her head around everything right now. The only thing she knows is that she feels the need to push. Like her body is on autopilot and really she couldn’t do anything against it anyway.

“There’s…” Emma stammers. “I can see it’s head.”

Regina reaches her hand down and feels. And oh how she can feel it. She can feel the baby’s head that’s on the way out of her. There’s a baby inside her. She’s going to be a mother again.

The how doesn’t matter. Only that the small creature is well. Please let it be healthy. That’s all she can think about now.

“Emma. What. I don’t know what to do,” she gasps as another painful contraction hits her.

She’s been in labour for well over twelve ours and hasn’t realised.

Emma, despite having given birth before, really has no clue what to do. The best thing that comes to mind is scooting in front of Regina, reaching for her hand and watching it all play out.

“I don’t know!”

It comes out much higher pitched than intended. It’s not like she wants to spread her panic on Regina. She’s not the one giving birth right now.

“But you’ve done it before!” Regina barks.

“I was eighteen at that time, Regina!”

“So?”

“Okay, calm down. Calm down. Just, the next time you feel a contraction you push. Okay. Just push.”

Regina nods, because really, that’s all she can do. Emma squeezes her hands that rest on top of her knees.

With the next contraction Regina pushes. How she’s even able to do so, she won’t ever grasp but she does. And her whole body is on fire.

“I can see the face!” Emma exclaims with a bit of glee and then reaches down because she can see that the umbilical chord is wrapped around a tiny head. She slips it free so that it doesn’t choke the baby. And then she guides Regina’s hand. And Regina feels a slippery wet head. The sensation is so weird. But she has to laugh and looks at Emma with shining eyes. And then she needs to push again and Emma, Emma is reaching down and she feels the baby slip out of her and then there’s crying. Beautiful crying and a second later a tiny little new life is lying on her bare chest. She’s crying in earnest now, a shaky hand reaching to cradle the baby.

“Are you going to allow me to call an ambulance now?” Emma asks but she is smiling and tears are rolling down her cheeks as well and Regina nods. And just how can you be filled with so much happiness and joy and not burst at the seems?

The baby, she doesn’t even know if it’s a boy or girl is small, but not by too much, she thinks and is breathing and still connected to her and she only half listens how Emma calls for an ambulance and there’s just so much wonder. Because how can it be?

And then lazy eyes open just the tiniest bit and she can see green. Green eyes just like Henry’s. And Emma’s. Emma slips her phone back into her pocket.

“They’ll be here shortly.”

Regina nods once more and then, “I, I haven’t seen, is it a boy or a girl?”

“A girl, it’s a girl. Be right back.”

Regina watches as Emma jumps of the bed and then comes back with a towel. She carefully puts it on the little girl. And then her finger is carefully tracing a small brow.

“She’s so tiny,” Emma wonders. “You know, i didn’t want to see Henry. So that I wouldn’t change my mind.”

Regina stares at her. Brown eyes burning into green ones.

“I don’t know how she’s possible.”

It’s pure wonder really. And then Emma lays her hand above the one with which Regina cradles the baby to her chest. The baby sighs and then there’s a pinkish mist that settles over them. Magic. The baby has magic. Regina is terrified and in wonder at once as a content feeling settles over her.

\- - -

By the time the ambulance reaches Mifflin street, Regina’s body has rid itself of the afterbirth and Emma helped her into a robe. It’s not much, but better then being stark naked when god knows who is coming to take them to the hospital. She has instructed Emma to look in the very back of her closet and Emma has produced a soft, pale green baby blanket, that once belonged to Henry, in which the little girl is now swaddled in. Emma insists on riding with her and she’s so glad about it. And then her world settles around the new addition. The tiny girl sleeping peacefully in her arms.

\- - -

“Mom! Mom!” Henry bursts through the doors of the hospital room and Regina smiles at her boy who’s looking concerned at them. Emma is sitting next to her bed and smiles as well. “Are you alright? Did someone hurt you?”

Henry has changed so much since they came back from Neverland. She watches, a little amused as he stops altogether when his eyes settle on his little sister, that is resting in her arms.

She has been checked out by someone other then Whale or Doc. A wet-nurse back in fairytale land, who is a paediatrician in this realm. Even though her little girl might’ve come a bit early, she is doing well and doesn’t need any extra medical attention. She’s a healthy and strong baby.

“What–– a baby?” Henry asks confused.

Emma chuckles. “Yeah kid. Surprise!”

“But you, you didn’t look pregnant Mom, not like Ashley!”

“I didn’t know Henry. Come here, so you can look at your little sister.”

Not needing to be told twice when Regina patted the empty space next to her, Henry climbs up on the bed and looks into his sisters eyes.

“She’s tiny,” he says after a while and carefully strokes a rosy cheek.

Regina nods.

“Are you okay with being a big brother?”

“Of course!” Henry exclaims and smiles brightly. All the movement wakes up the little girl, who is still nameless and she lets out a big yawn and opens her green eyes.

“Does she have a name?”

“Not yet,” Regina shakes her head.

– – –

“Johanna,” Henry speaks silently after Emma has helped his other mother out of the car and handed the small bundle to her. “I looked it up, it means gift. And well, she just came and nobody knew, like a surprise gift!”

Regina smiles at that and tries to suppress some tears that threaten to fall. She cups his cheek.

“Johanna,” she tries to sound out the name. “I like that, Henry.”

Then she looks at her daughter. “Are you a little Johanna?”

The baby sleeps on and clenches her little fists that peek out of the wrap she’s in.

“I think she likes it,” Emma pipes up from behind and looks over Regina’s shoulder. “You’re a little Jo, aren’t you?”

Regina shakes her head but has to smile.

This, this is it. Her happy ending with her little family. Henry, Johanna, and surprisingly, Emma. That is all she needs to be happy.

“Johanna it is.”

– – –

 

 

and they lived happily ever after (of course).

 

\- - - FIN - - -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
